777 Bhopal Medical Appeal

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777 Bhopal Medical Appeal
777
     The Bhopal
    Medical Appeal
     Newsletter
       Summer 2011

The Chingari
expansion
Inside view of the
Rehabilitation Centre

Water Crisis
The ongoing disaster

Bhopali
Exclusive interview
with the director
of this major new
documentary

Glastonbury
Raising awareness
at Europe’s biggest
music festival

 The Bhopal Medical Appeal
777 Bhopal Medical Appeal
The Bhopal Medical Appeal Newsletter
   The Bhopal Medical Appeal                                                                            Summer 2011

                                                                                                        Contents
Who are we?
The Bhopal Medical Appeal exists to bring first-class
medical help to the survivors of the Bhopal gas and water
disasters. We are the Bhopal survivors, Sambhavna and
Chingari staff in Bhopal, charity staff in Brighton and a
worldwide network of donors, volunteers, supporters and
fundraisers – all equal, all together.
  Our Newsletter is called 777 – saat saat saat in Hindi and
Urdu – which, with a slight twist of the tongue, also means
together, together, together.                                                                           4   The Chingari Expansion
                                                                                                            Moving to a larger premises means
                                                                                                            the Rehabilitation Centre can help
                                                                                                            more children
Bhopal: The background story
                                                                                                        8   Water:
On that night of horror (December 2-3rd, 1984) a cloud of gas, 500 times
                                                                                                            The Ongoing Crisis
more toxic than cyanide, leaked from a factory in Bhopal belonging to
                                                                                                            Despite some beneficial changes,
the Union Carbide Corporation, causing the hideous deaths of thousands
                                                                                                            Colin Toogood discovers there are
and creating more than quarter of a century of severe suffering for the
                                                                                                            still major problems
survivors and their children. Today in Bhopal, well over 100,000 people are
chronically sick from the effects of that night, while some 30,000 more
are ill because their water is polluted by the derelict plant, which has never                          10 Bhopali
been cleaned up. In addition, this injustice has never been righted and the                                 Exclusive interview with Van
crimes involved remain unpunished.                                                                          Maximilian Carlson about his new
                                                                                                            documentary

                                 Editor/Writer/Producer: John May                                       12 Glastonbury
                                 Design: Hazel Bennington
                                 Contributors: Text: Colin Toogood                                          Highlights of the BMA’s
                                 Photography: Alex Masi/Focus for Humanity,                                 experiences at this important
                                 Jack Laurenson, Raghu Rai, Roz Shearn
                                                                                                            awareness-raising event
                                 Printer: Millennia Print Ltd, Crowborough
                                 Distributor: Synergy Group, Burgess Hill

                                 The Bhopal Medical Appeal is a Registered Charity.
                                                                                                        14 Digital Bhopal
                                 Charity No. 1117526                                                        Online ways of helping the BMA
                                                                                                            with its work
                                 As we were going to press, we received news that
                                 Alex Masi and the BMA have received a $15,000 Getty
                                 Images Grants for Good award. This is designed to                      15 Sambhavna
Cover photo: Sanna at Chingari   enable photographers to bring attention to significant                     Latest news of exciting
Jack Laurenson                   social and cultural issues. Full details in next issue.                    developments

  Please help with a donation
  Cheques                                                                             www.bhopal.org
  The Bhopal Medical Appeal, Unit 2, The Foundry                                      See how much good your gift does and donate
  8/9 St. George’s Mews, Brighton BN1 4EU or                                          direct online.
  Freepost, The Bhopal Medical Appeal
                                                                                      Gift Aid
  To save us the postage please omit Freepost and affix a stamp
                                                                                      Please let us know if we can Gift Aid your
  Legacies                                                                            donation. This significantly increases the value
  Those being born damaged will need care for                                         of your gift at no cost to yourself.
  the rest of their lives, so leaving a legacy is a                                   You must pay UK taxes.
  great way to continue helping.

  Regular giving                                                                      For credit card donations please call:
  An extremely valuable way to help.
  Please call the office on 01273 603 278.                                            Freefone 0800 316 5577
2 | www.bhopal.org
777 Bhopal Medical Appeal
This little girl Manakshi
may look like a three-
year old but she is in fact                                      “Iqui offic

                              Alex Masi/Focus for Humanity
seven. Manakshi suffers                                          torrorrore net
from a growth disorder                                           magnim est ipsam
and has been undergoing
                                                                 autempo ritatem
treatment at Chingari for
the last two years. When                                         si rem autet
she first arrived, she was                                       rem sed quist ra
unresponsive and could                                           sedigen itiore
hardly walk. Now she can                                         evendaecus.”
walk, chat and play.

                                                             A time of mixed fortunes
                                                                                 welcome to the              hitting presentation of the complex story of
                                                                                 Summer edition of           the Bhopal disaster and its aftermath.
                                                                                 our Newsletter.
                                                                                    As I write these words   the last few months have seen
                                                                                 I am just back from         further frustrations in the long legal and
                                                                                 this year’s Glastonbury     political struggle to bring those responsible
                                                                                 Festival. As reported in    for the disaster to justice, to improve the
“The last few months                                         the last issue, Michael Eavis, the Festival’s   levels of compensation provided to Bhopal
have seen further                                            founder, has become one of our patrons.         survivors and to tackle the remediation of
frustrations in                                              As a result, the BMA has acquired a much        the factory site.
the long legal                                               higher profile at the event, enabling us to       In our Winter 2010 Newsletter,
                                                             spread awareness of the Bhopal disaster to      we reported on the trial of the eight
and political
                                                             a broader audience. Full report inside.         Union Carbide India Ltd (UciL) ex-
struggle to bring
                                                                In this edition we focus on two main         employees, charged with causing “death
those responsible                                            issues: the expansion of Chingari and the       by negligence”. The derisory sentences
for the disaster                                             ongoing water crisis in Bhopal.                 and fines imposed by the court triggered
to justice, to                                                  We take you inside the new Chingari          a nationwide outrage. This April, attempts
improve the levels                                           Rehabilitation Centre, now located in           were made to persuade India’s Supreme
of compensation                                              larger premises provided by the State           Court to reinstate the original charge of
provided to Bhopal                                           government. As before, all running costs        “manslaughter”, which carries much higher
survivors and                                                are covered by funding from the BMA. This       penalties. The request was denied.
to tackle the                                                will enable Chingari to expand its valuable       The Supreme Court will, in the coming
remediation of the                                           work and help four times the number of          months, consider two thorny issues
                                                             children than before.                           relating to compensation. Firstly, the initial
factory site.”
                                                                The BMA’s Colin Toogood reports              payments made to Bhopal survivors were
                                                             first-hand on the water crisis in the           inadequate and it will be argued that they
                                                             poor neighbourhoods surrounding the             should be substantially increased. The
                                                             abandoned plant. Despite assurances             Court will also hear evidence regarding the
                                                             from the state government, he found that        questionable decision-making process that
                                                             the water supply situation is still very        was set up to decide who was eligible for
                                                             unreliable. As a result, large numbers of       compensation. Many needy people have
                                                             people are having to drink polluted water –     been excluded for no good reason.
                                                             at great risk to their personal health.           As for the site remediation, Dow
                                                                We are happy to bring news of an             Chemical still refuses to accept legal
                                                             important new documentary film –                responsibility. So who is going to pay for
                                                             ‘Bhopali’ by Van Maximilian Carlson –           the clean-up? Until the legal stalemate
                                                             which we hope will be widely available in       surrounding this issue is resolved, tens of
                                                             the near future. The first feature of a young   thousands of Bhopalis and their families
                                                             filmmaker, this self-funded movie has           will continue to suffer. They need your
                                                             already won several awards for its hard-        continued help and support.

                                                             Peter Finnigan Executive Secretary

                                                                                                                                                     www.bhopal.org | 3
777 Bhopal Medical Appeal
The Chingari

expansio
Photos: Alex Masi/
Focus for Humanity

I
     t was another busy morning at
     Chingari when Tarun Thomas, the
                                                The Chingari                                  already seen an increase in the number of
                                                                                              children coming for treatment and also
     Centre’s manager, took time out from       Rehabilitation Centre                         in the number of people offering their
     his busy schedule to speak to us on        has relocated to larger                       voluntary services. “People are pouring
     the phone from Bhopal.                                                                   in,” says Tarun, “They want to come and
        Tarun supervises the staff,             premises on a more                            join us, to help in many manners.”
the organisation’s logistics and its            prominent site, with the                         As well as healing the children, the
rehabilitation work, which includes                                                           Centre tries to aid the parents by finding
physiotherapy, occupational therapy,            help of financial support                     them some economic activity they can do
speech therapy and educational classes.         from the BMA. This will                       so they can provide for their families.
  Tarun was born in Kerala but was                                                               There is an outreach programme to
brought up in the Bhopal area. He               enable them to increase                       provide treatment at a community level
was outside India at the time of the            the number of children                        for children who are too sick to come into
disaster. He previously worked for CARE                                                       the clinic. In such cases, the child is often
International, on a project providing
                                                they are able to help                         kept hidden away like a family secret.
supplementary nutrition for under-                                                            “In Indian society,” says Tarun, “it is
nourished village children. “When I                The Centre’s new premises has been         really difficult for the parents to show they
was transferred away from home I was            provided by the State Government of           have a disabled child at home because
not happy and I thought I should look           Madhya Pradesh, its running costs being       their daughters may not get married
for another job. One of my friends said         covered by the BMA.                           because of it.”
                   that Chingari needed            At the time we spoke, construction            Specialists from Chingari not only
                    a manager so I got          work was still in progress. The building is   give the child regular physiotherapy
                    interested, started         laid out in a linear fashion with separate    but also counsel the parents as to how
                     work, and I can’t leave    treatment rooms leading off a wide            they can better manage their disabled
                     it now.”                   corridor which is the main social space.      child at home by treating them in a
                         The Centre has         Here the children and their mothers have      normal manner.
                      16 core staff and a       the chance to be among others and share           “Setting up an office is a difficult one.
                       number of outside        their problems. There is a kitchen which      Everything is in an unsettled manner
                        specialists. So far     provides the children and their parents       right now” says Tarun. “We can’t avoid
                         they have identified   with one nutritious meal a day.                             the children because they
                         334 children in        A British volunteer has also                                require regular physiotherapy
                         the worst-affected     designed a garden                                           daily and we can’t skip that.
        neighbourhoods who are suffering           The new building is on a                                 So it’s really difficult to get
from congenital deformities. Of these,          main road which has made                                   them settled and get the staff
130 are registered at the Centre. On an         Chingari much more visible                                 to manage them properly. But
average day, 50 to 90 children attend           to a broader population.                                   we have coped and are almost
the Centre.                                     As a result, they have                                    settled now.”

4 | www.bhopal.org
777 Bhopal Medical Appeal
Chingari Clinic

on
                            (Left) Gentle        (Below/Far Left)
                            occupational         Examples of
                            therapy brings a     physical therapy
                            smile to the face    techniques used at
                            of this young girl   Chingari

                                                 (Above)
                                                 A communal
                                                 occupational
                                                 therapy class
                                                 helps increase
                                                 the children’s
                                                 social and
                                                 communication
                                                 skills.

     (Left/Above)                                (Left) Healing
     Boys at Chingari                            hands at work,
     receiving electrical                        helping a boy
     stimulation                                 suffering with
     and vibrational                             both physical and
     treatment.                                  mental difficulties.

                                                   www.bhopal.org | 5
777 Bhopal Medical Appeal
The Chingari
 Rehabilitation
 Centre staff

                                             Rasheeda Bee
                                             Managing Trustee
                                             (founder member)

Tarun Thomas         Kapil Parmar            Champa Devi Shukla
Manager              Speech Therapist        Managing Trustee
                                             (founder member)

Rishabh Kumar        Prabhakar Nagle         Deepa Mandal
Intern               Speech Therapist        Field Worker

Mohd. Israil Khan    Kalpana Rohar           Tarique Ahmed
Accountant           Asst. Physiotherapist   Special Educator

Vidhya Bangde        Nousheen Khan           Usha Tilwani
Field Worker         Speech Therapist        Health Worker

Nafeesa Bee          Sanjay Gaur             Poonam Bichpuriya
Aayah                Physiotherapist         Occupational
                                             Therapist

Rani Yadav           Deepesh Dwivedi         Arvind Motghare
Caretaker            Assistant P-T           Special Educator

6 | www.bhopal.org
777 Bhopal Medical Appeal
Chingari Clinic

               Community
               meetings
               (Left) Chingari has identified
               and provided treatment for
               hundreds of children but they
               are well aware that this is just
               a small fraction of the likely
               numbers of affected children
               in the communities around
               the plant. This is why they
               have instituted community
               meetings where mothers
               bring in their children to be
               assessed by Chingari health
               specialists to see whether
               they have medical problems.
               If so, they help the parents to
               register the child as disabled.
               Chingari has limited capacity
               but will admit children to the
               clinic if the parents are too
               poor to care for them or if
               their need is urgent.

               (Below) Chingari’s fleet
               of vans are a vital part of
               Chingari’s outreach services.
               Many children would be
               unable to reach the clinic
               without them.

The Chingari
garden plan

               Work has begun to
               transform a barren
               space at the front of
               Chingari’s new building
               into a wonderful sensory
               therapeutic garden, based
               on an imaginative plan by
               designer Annette Murray.

                             www.bhopal.org | 7
777 Bhopal Medical Appeal
Water
            The ongoing crisis
                     Colin Toogood of the BMA provides
                     a firsthand eye-witness report on the
                     appalling water situation in Bhopal
           Photos: Alex Masi/Focus for Humanity

                                                                                            following year and it was plain that it was
                                                                                            not fit for purpose. The piping system
                                                                                            was rudimentary and laid along the
                                                                                            ground, making it easily ruptured. The
                                                                                            tanks themselves were never maintained
                                                                                            or cleaned. More importantly, the tanker
                                                                                            supply was intermittent.
                                                                                               One of my main purposes on this
                                                                                            trip was to go back to one particular
                                                                                            neighbourhood – Atal Ayub Nagar – a
                                                                                            dry, dusty strip of land sandwiched
                                                                                            between the main railway line and the
                                                                                            walls of the abandoned factory. The
                                                                                            people here are poor and the houses
                                                                                            are mostly built from wood, plastic
                                                                                            sacks, cow dung, corrugated concrete
                                                                                            and metal sheets.
                                                                                               On my last visit I was told that, as the
                                                                                            water tanks were only filled sporadically,
                                                                                            many of the families were forced to use
                                                                                            one of the two government hand pumps.
                                                                                            They complained that the water smelled
                                                                                            of chemicals and had a bad metallic taste
                                                                                            but they told me they had no choice but

                                            T
                                                                                            to drink it.
                                                                                               Water from these pumps has
           (Above) Woman collecting                         he newspapers in Bhopal         subsequently been tested by several
           water from the government                        are full of stories about the   organisations, including Greenpeace and
           hand pump in A.A. Nagar and                      ongoing water shortage          (most recently) by the Centre for Science
           (above right) carrying                           problems across the             and Environment in New Delhi. They all
           it home.                                         city. Less often reported       found that the water contains dangerous
                                                            are the problems of the         levels of pesticides and solvents. Our own
           (Far right) Women wait their
                                            city’s poorest people living in the slum                 BMA survey showed that levels of
           turn at one of the water tanks
           in A.A. Nagar amidst a sea of    neighbourhoods (bastis) around the                         carbon tetrachloride alone were
           containers.                      abandoned Union Carbide pesticide                          4,000 times higher than the
                                            plant, many of whom are                                      World Health Organisation’s
                                            still drinking chemically-                                      safe limits.
                                            contaminated water on a                                             When I arrived back in
                                            daily basis.                                                      A.A. Nagar in May this
                                               As reported in our                                           year, the temperature was
                                            last issue, the State                                        a scorching 45 degrees. We
                                            Government only                                            felt constantly dehydrated and
                                            began laying pipelines                                      were carrying bottles filled with
                                            and arranging regular water                                 water from the sophisticated
                                            deliveries by tanker truck                                 filtration system at the
                                            in 2008. I surveyed much of                               Sambhavna Clinic.
                                            this new supply infrastructure the                            The inhabitants of A.A. Nagar

8 | www.bhopal.org
777 Bhopal Medical Appeal
Water issues

   “There could
   be as many as
   400 families
   competing for
   each delivery.”

have no such safe supply. Residents told
us that tanker trucks were now rarely seen
                                              Private water pumps
                                              In A.A. Nagar and other affected
and that the water tanks might be filled
                                              communities, some residents have their
every 2-3 days in good times but only         own hand pump which enables them to
every 8-10 days in bad. When the water        draw water from a shallow aquifer. This
did arrive, there might be as many as 400     water is almost certainly contaminated.
families competing for it.                    When the public tanks have not
   Since I was last here, the dusty           been filled, these well-owners come
main track has been roughly concreted         under pressure to supply friends and
with water pipes laid alongside. The          neighbours. Such is the demand, that
piped supply is intermittent. We saw          some residents are reduced to having
groups of people clustering round a           to pay for poisoned water from these
                                              private pumps.
hole in the ground, drawing water from
a pipe that had ruptured – or been
punctured deliberately.
   As for the two government hand
pumps, one was out of order while the
other was still in regular use. Many of the
residents we spoke to confirmed that they
still have to use water from this source
when the main tanks run dry.

                                                                      www.bhopal.org | 9
777 Bhopal Medical Appeal
A remarkable documentary by a young American
                                    filmmaker brings the story of the survivors of the
                                    Bhopal chemical disaster to a new audience
Max Carlson (right) with
Sanjay Verma, whose personal
story is highlighted in the film.

                                    V
                                                   an Maximilian Carlson (Max       be our guide and translator. At that time,
“I became curious                                  to his friends) is a modest      we didn’t know about his own personal
about the whole                                    man who has achieved             story which became an important part
story and                                          something remarkable.            of the film. Similarly, the story of the
                                                   Entirely self-funded, he         18-month old baby Saiba Babu, born with
discovered there                    conceived, filmed, edited and directed a        severe birth defects who while we were
wasn’t an adequate                  full-length feature documentary on the          there, had to be taken into hospital where
documentary about                   Bhopal survivors and their children, which      she died. We met the family because they
                                    has already won numerous film festival          happened to live near Sambhavna.”
it so I decided to                  awards.                                            “Then, when we returned to the US and
make one.”                             Based in Los Angeles, he had acquired        to edit the footage, we realised that we
                                    a lot of film editing experience and made       needed to include the story of the Bhopal
                                    a number of short films by the age of           activists and their struggle for justice and
                                    24 when he first heard about Bhopal.            explain more about the legal situation
                                    Over the Skype line he tells me: “I got to      with Union Carbide and Dow Chemical
                                    hear about it through a friend of mine          in order to provide a context. So we went
                                    who volunteered at Sambhavna and had            back during the 25th anniversary and
                                    recorded a lot of audio interviews with         filmed the demonstrations outside Dow’s
                                    women who had been affected by the gas.         HQ in Chennai and the press conferences
                                    She asked me to edit them for a radio           featuring Dominic Lapierre (the author
                                    piece and I spent six months on it, during      of Five Past Midnight in Bhopal) and the
                                    which time I became curious about the           US lawyer who is fighting the survivors’
                                    whole story and discovered there wasn’t         compensation case.
                                    an adequate documentary about it so I              “The whole experience was a powerful
                                    decided to make one.”                           one for me but two things stand out.
                                       He described his first ever trip to India,   When we first visited Chingari we spent
                                    in the company of producer Kirk Palayan,        a week playing with the children before
                                    as “an eye-opening experience”. Filming         we started filming and one of the mothers
                                    everything himself, he admits that “it          thought we were doctors and asked if we
                                    does take a toll on you, emotionally and        could help her son. I found it sad that I
                                    physically.”                                    couldn’t do more. It rings out in my mind.
                                       The film was not, at that stage, fully          “Then, when we filmed Saiba in the
                                    formed in his mind. “The only idea I had        hospital, that was overwhelming, difficult
                                    was that I knew I wanted to tell the story      and scary. We were filming illegally with a
                                    of the Chingari Trust with a side focus on      small camera. The hospital was run down,
                                    Sambhavna. All the other stories in the         understaffed and had rats running around.’
                                    film, I just came across or discovered as I        Release details for ‘Bhopali’ are still
                                    went along.”                                    being finalised.
                                       “The best example of this is when we            Check www.bhopalithemovie.com for
                                    met Sanjay Verma, who was supposed to           latest news.

10 | www.bhopal.org
Bhopali

(Below)
Scenes from the
demonstrations
outside Dow’s
HQ in Chennai
to mark the 25th
anniversary of the
Bhopal disaster.

                               Mita Manish with
                               her son Sidesh
                               (left) and other
                               children (below)
                               at the Chingari
                               Rehabilitation
                               Centre.

                     “When we filmed
                     Saiba in the
                     hospital that was
                     overwhelming,
                     difficult and
                     scary.”

                     (Left)
                     Baby Saiba
                     Babu receiving
                     treatment in a
                     Bhopal hospital

                                  www.bhopal.org | 11
Activities

The BMA@
Glast               nbury
Raising awareness of Bhopal at the
                                         2011

biggest music festival in Europe
Photos: Roz Shearn

I
      t may have rained all week, reducing      throughout the festival, alongside films       together with a large white skull as a
      the site to a sea of mud, but the sun     from Oxfam, Greenpeace and WaterAid.           symbol of Dow Chemical and the suffering
      finally came out on Saturday and the         The centrepiece of our site was a           of the Bhopali survivors.
      atmosphere was fantastic as 180,000       beautiful Indian marquee. Here                    The basic form of the figures was an
      people gathered to celebrate this         visitors were able to relax, drink chai        armature covered with chicken wire, to
      extraordinary annual event.               and find out about the story of Bhopal.        which were attached bits of recycled plastic
   Thanks to the fact that Glastonbury’s        Literally thousands of people came to visit,   bottles covered with fabric. We recruited
founder Michael Eavis, is now a BMA             including many of our existing supporters.     literally hundreds of volunteers keen to
patron, our presence at this year’s Festival    What was most impressive were the huge         help us bring the family to life and a fine
was significantly enhanced. Not only did we     numbers of young people who were really        sight it was, particularly at night when they
have a bigger, well-located space as our HQ     interested to find out what was going on       were all lit up.
but we were also one of the few charities who   and keen to get involved.                         Our other major theme was to make a
were asked to make a three-minute film to          Costume designer Holly Murray created       link between cleaning up Glastonbury
promote our activities. This was shown on       a sculpture garden containing a series         and cleaning up Bhopal. We did this in
all the main stages between performances        of statues representing a Bhopal family        two ways.

(Top) The mother
and child sculpture,
made of strips of
fabric and recycled
material, was
inspired by the
Bhopal memorial,
sculpted by Ruth
Waterman, which
stands outside
the UCC factory
gates in Bhopal.

                                                                                                          “My intention with
                                                                                                          the Bhopal Sculpture
                                                                                                          Garden was to convey
                                                                                                          that if enough
                                                                                                          individuals join
                                                                                                          together to become a
                                                                                                          formidable force that
                                                                                                          cannot be ignored, just
                                                                                                          like the tiny strips
                                                                                                          of fabric and bottle
                                                                                                          halves that make up
                                                                                                          our glowing mother and
                                                                                                          child and the rest of
                                                                                                          the sculpture garden.
                                                                                                          Dow Chemicals will be
                                                                                                          forced to sit up, take
                                                                                                          notice and be held
                                                                                                          accountable.”
                                                                                                          Holly Murray

12 | www.bhopal.org
Firstly, we recruited 80 litter-pickers in    who previously ran a skin care business.     THANK YOU
advance of the Festival who got a free ticket    He manufactured for us an alcohol-free,
in exchange for working throughout the           toxin-free skin cleanser that we dispensed   Holly Murray (Concept/Design);
                                                                                              Alan Williams (Armatures); Roz
festival, from 6 to 12 am, cleaning up all the   with specially-labelled hand sanitisers.     Shearn(Filming/Photography);
litter from the front of the Pyramid stage       In the muddy environment this proved         Jason Farey (Sound);
before the day’s performances.                   extremely popular with the passing           Ady Reilly (Lighting/Security);
   As the mud was as deep as a wellington                    crowds and gave us a perfect     Liz Campbell (Site Manager)
boot you can imagine this was not a                          opportunity to talk to people    Volunteer team: Charlotte Brown, Jade
pleasant task. Their sterling efforts will                 about cleaning up Bhopal.          van Drie-Brown, Harriett Parsons, Annie
have raised some £10,000 for us, providing                      The BMA staff and             Macadam, Annabelle Le Clercq, Tazz Khan,
a major contribution to the BMA’s costs for                   volunteers worked night and     Lorraine Close, Charlotte Talley and the
the event.                                                    day. It was well worth the      children of St Luke’s primary school
   Our other clean-up strategy was an idea                    effort and was a fantastic      Special thanks to Fiona Case of the
hatched by our administrator Georgina                         experience that none of us      Glastonbury Festival who made it all
and our finance manager Malcolm,                               will forget.                   possible.

                                                                                              (Above) Two volunteers help
                                                                                              construct the white skull;
                                                                                              Daytime view of the water-
                                                                                              carrying woman; the full set of
                                                                                              the illuminated sculptures at night.

                                                                                              (Left and below) The BMA
                                                                                              team on the Pyramid Stage at
                                                                                              Glastonbury; Singer/Songrwriter
                                                                                              Billy Bragg with BMA volunteer;
                                                                                              BMA volunteers dance
                                                                                              Indian style.

                                                                                                                        www.bhopal.org | 13
Activities

Digital Bhopal
                                                                                         Legacies
www.bhopal.org                                                                           l As a supporter of the people
                                                                                         of Bhopal, you have been a
                                                                                         major force in the growth of
                                                                                         Sambhavna Clinic and the
                                                                                         Chingari Rehabilitation Centre.
                                                                                         From reading these pages, you
                                                                                         will also know that need for free,
                                                                                         first-class health care in Bhopal
                                                                                         will be there for many years to
                                                                                         come. We want to safeguard the
                                                                                         future of Sambhavna as a centre
                                                                                         of international excellence and
                                                                                         work with them to share their
                                                                                         knowledge with the rest of the
                                                                                         world.
                                                                                            This spring, we wrote to
                                                                                         as many of our supporters as
                                                                                         possible, asking them to consider
                                                                                         leaving a legacy to the Bhopal
                                                                                         Medical Appeal. The reaction
                                                                                         to our initial appeal has been
                                                                                         tremendous and we would like
Our new website was launched in November 2010, designed by the                           to thank all of you who have
Brighton-based web company Safe As Milk                                                  already responded and urge
                                                                                         new supporters to consider
                                                                                         remembering Bhopal in your will.
                                                                                         Please contact Peter Finnigan at
  Social networking                                                                      the BMA office if you would like
  In addition to the new website the BMA has also been getting involved in               to discuss this.
  many of the popular social media and networking sites – with interesting
  results. This sort of online activity is a great way of raising awareness; it’s also
  proving a really effective way of promoting our activities and fundraising.
                                                                                         Committed giving
  Please take a look at what we are doing and remember that this sort of                 l We urge all of our supporters to
  online activity is most effective when users spread the word!                          consider setting up a direct debit
                                                                                         or standing order to The Bhopal
                                                                                         Medical Appeal. For us to be really
       Facebook: To join our Facebook page, log into The Bhopal Medical Appeal           effective with our planning, it is
                                                                                         vital for us to know how much
       Twitter: To follow us on Twitter, search for BhopalMedAppeal
                                                                                         of our income is guaranteed.
       YouTube: To view our channel, search for The Bhopal Medical Appeal
                                                                                         Committed regular giving allows
                                                                                         us that advantage.
       Flickr: To view our photos, search for The Bhopal Medical Appeal                  If you would like to help us
                                                                                         in this way, please call us on
                                                                                         01273 603278 or visit
                                                                                         www.bhopal.org.
Raise money for the BMA                       in some cases); cartridges will be worth
just by doing a web search                    £1 each to the BMA. Recycle4Charity
You can also raise money for the              will supply you with pre-paid envelopes
Bhopal Medical Appeal by doing your
web searches through www.everyclick.
                                              for both items. If you use a lot of ink
                                              cartridges (or can organise a collection
                                                                                         A big
com. Each search earns us around a
penny and with enough supporters,
                                              at your office), they’ll even send you
                                              a box to put them all in and make
                                                                                         thank you
this will provide us with another             arrangement to collect them from you.
                                                                                         The Bhopal Medical Appeal owes
valuable regular income stream for the
                                                                                         its existence to the generous
BMA. Please use Everyclick and also           Just Giving                                donations of individuals, support
encourage your family and friends to          We also encourage any of our               groups and charitable trust
take part.                                    supporters, who are fundraising for        funds. These are too numerous
                                              us, to use the ‘Just Giving’ website.      to mention individually but in our
Make money for the BMA                        It’s a really easy way to set up your      next issue we will highlight some
by recycling!                                 own online fundraising page and only       of the fantastic efforts people
All you have to do is click on the            takes a few minutes. There’s a built-in    around the country have made
‘Recycle4Charity.co.uk’ link on our           payment mechanism and the money            on our behalf. Our sincere thanks
website and follow the instructions           goes straight into our bank account.       go out to you all for your loyal
                                                                                         support.
on the page. All mobile phones have           Please call us if you would like help
some recycling value (as much as £30          with this process.

14 | www.bhopal.org
Sambhavna Clinic
The Sambhavna Clinic will be celebrating its 15th
Anniversary in September this year by staging a
three-day multi-disciplinary conference on Industrial
Toxicology, Environmental Health and Integrative
Healthcare. This will bring together some 100
delegates from India and abroad to discuss the
latest developments in medical research and the
variety of treatment strategies being used to provide
effective healthcare for toxic-affected communities
worldwide. Sambhavna has, in addition, submitted
five research proposals to the Indian Council of
Medical Research (ICMR), in the hope of obtaining
funding to study the long-term health effects of
MIC gas – the deadly chemical released from the
damaged Bhopal plant – on the local population.
We will present a full report in our next issue.

                                                        Alex Masi
                                                        The majority of the
                                                        photographs in this
                                                        issue have been taken
                                                        by photojournalist
                                                        Alex Masi who was
                                                        the winner of the 2011
                                                        NGO Assignment
                                                        Fellowship from the
                                                        non-governmental
                                                        organisation Focus For
                                                        Humanity, a not-for-
                                                        profit organisation
                                                        that provides grants to
                                                        photographers to carry
                                                        out assignments that
                                                        document the plight
                                                        of the world’s most
                                                        vulnerable peoples.
                                                        This award is enabling
                                                        Alex to take a number
                                                        of trips to India during
                                                        the course of this year
                                                        to further document
                                                        the ongoing Bhopal
                                                        disaster. See: www.
                                                        focusforhumanity.org
                                                        and www.alexmasi.co.uk

                                                                www.bhopal.org | 15
Raghu Rai/Magnum Photos

                                   The Bhopal Medical Appeal

For Credit Card donations please call: 0800 316 5577 or visit www.bhopal.org

                                                                  Contact us
                           tel 01273 603 278 • email admin@bhopal.org • web www.bhopal.org
                             The Bhopal Medical Appeal, Unit 2, The Foundry, 8-9 St George’s Mews, Brighton BN1 4EU
                                           The Bhopal Medical Appeal is a Registered Charity. Charity No. 1117526
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